So to give some quick context, I'm making a game and have started getting the first bits of artwork in from artists, so I'd like to create the tags that will be necessary to describe such. May as well get the stuff added in first before anyone else does to save some trouble.

...I haven't posted on e621 before though, and... yeah. I've looked through how to tag things and there's a few things that I'm pretty sure I'm going to botch if I do this on my own. So to save someone else from having to clean up my mess, I'd like to check these things before I screw them up.

First off, I'm a bit confused on the copyright marker. Should it be listed as copyright:saorsa or saorsa_(copyright)?

Second, I noticed characters are char:x instead of character:x and I haven't been able to find an example for species, so is it just species:ferax or is it abbreviated to spec:ferax or something else?

Third, the TWYS guideline means if something looks sorta female, even if the species only has one sex (herms in this case) and doesn't really know what gender means, they would still be classified as female for the purposes of tagging as I understand it, assuming you can't see any indication of the hermaphroditic genitals. Is this correct?

Finally, another TWYS dealie here - for species that have traits from different kinds of species, such as having both mammalian and scalie features, would this just include both tags, or be left blank as they're not really either? Just go with the closest ones available that make sense? Actually, if a species has traits from real-life species, such as some partial inspiration from a hyena, would the hyena tag also apply, even if it's clearly not a hyena, but could potentially be considered a hybrid?

Thanks very much in advance for the help, just want to be certain I got this all correct before I go messing with the tags since it sounds like setting things like species or copyright tags locks them in place and they can't be changed easily after they're created, so I'd rather get it right the first time instead of botching it up hardcore.

First of all the 5 metatags artist:x, copyright:x, character:x, general:x, and species:x are not actual tags in any way, they are basically just an instruction to the server to change the supplied tag x to the specified category. If you don't need to change the category for a tag don't use them.

For your other questions:

1) Heavily depends on whether the word has more than one meaning or not, if the only use of that particular tag is a copyright it can be left as saorsa and simply put under the copyright category. If it has more than one use splitting them up into saorsa for the main meaning and then saorsa_(copyright) or saorsa_(species) (or whatever else is applicable) would be best.

2) There is no difference between character:x and char:x, the latter is simply a shorthand for the former. I'm unsure if there are any shorthands for the other metatags, but if there are they function the exact same as their actual versions.

3) If something looks like a female they should be tagged as such. Female in this case referring to looking like an average human female, or other average real life species if they're something like a dog, cat, or peacock.

4) Heavily depends on the character and how they're portrayed. If a trait is visible from something you can identify then tag that. If it looks like a hybrid of a reptile and one of the hyena species then feel free to tag those traits.

The part before the colon denotes the tag type. This determines the colour and position of a tag in a post's tag listing. New tags are created when they are added to a post for the first time on the site. When you create the tag you can set the tag's type by using the colon denotation such as copyright:saorsa. By default, new tags are set as the general type. In order to change a tag to a different type, they must be edited via the tag index if the tag has been added to less than 100 posts. A staff member can only change the tag types for tags that are used on more than 100 posts.

Tag suffixes such as the _(copyright) in saorsa_(copyright) are used to distinguish tags from one another, but has no effect on the tag's type. Such clarification is not required for unique tag names which are very unlikely to confused for other tags. However, they may be necessary for various situations, such as where there are different characters who share the same name (ben_(roanoak), ben_(nikoh), ben_(benjipaws), ben_(sssonic2)), or a character's name is shared with some other entity (cuphead_(game)/cuphead_(character), fuel_(artist)/fuel_(character)).

Helpful responses, thanks!

I definitely should have double checked this earlier, but hadn't considered the plausibility of a tag being in use already; the saorsa tag apparently exists as a character name oddly enough. As I understand this, it looks like it shouldn't be a major issue since there are only two of such from 2016 and it's unlikely they'll be updated with additional pictures which would be confusing.

If it becomes an issue I'll go back and fix it personally but I don't think it'll be a problem from the looks of it.

Thank you very much for clearing this all up in advance!

Scathis said:
I definitely should have double checked this earlier, but hadn't considered the plausibility of a tag being in use already; the saorsa tag apparently exists as a character name oddly enough. As I understand this, it looks like it shouldn't be a major issue since there are only two of such from 2016 and it's unlikely they'll be updated with additional pictures which would be confusing.

I checked the sources and it turns out that the character actually has a full name that is more unique, so I added that to them instead of just 'saorsa'.

JAKXXX3 said:
I checked the sources and it turns out that the character actually has a full name that is more unique, so I added that to them instead of just 'saorsa'.

Oh thank you a great deal, I'm sure they'll appreciate the updated accuracy, and it helped clear up the search term! Took forever to get all the tags right and I still managed to mess one up, but it's fixed now. Thanks again for the help!

Also thank you SO much for asking these questions!

Scathis said:
Oh thank you a great deal, I'm sure they'll appreciate the updated accuracy, and it helped clear up the search term! Took forever to get all the tags right and I still managed to mess one up, but it's fixed now. Thanks again for the help!

You did great! seriously, don't worry about it. Everyone makes some little oopses now and then, so seriously, don't worry about it. <3 I wish everyone put in as much effort as you did :)

also, tagging's a team effort, so it's normal to see others add tags to what you've done :) no worries! :D

(also that art looks COOL! :D